It appears I come from a long line of Baptist Ministers. One big story that I am not sure is true or not is that one of my great grandfathers was a minister in England, converted Pocahontas to Christianity, baptized her and married her to a John Rolfe. (I thought she married a John Smith) Anyway, that same great grandfather left England to come to the colonies to begin a ministry of conversion to the colonists and from generation to generation in my family begot more Baptists ministers.

That same family also comes from a long line of politicians, judges and sherrifs! Quite a paradox, wouldn't you say?

Would be very interested in reading others and what they have learned about people in their family tree.

Hey JaneyMae! I thought it would be kind of fun for us to share what we all have have learned from our family history so far and yours was fascinating -- Catherine the Great of Russia! Whoa! Thanks for sharing!

Speaking of horse thieves, here's a bit about one of my Rev War Tory gx-grandfathers, Francis Hopkins, who:

QUOTE

organized a band of Tories, whose occupation was to steal the horses of the settlers and intimidate the citizens whenever possible. He went so far as to post notices at and near the home of Colonel William Campbell, warning him that if he did not desist from his prosecution of the Loyal adherents of George III, a terrible calamity would befall him, either in the loss of his property or his life. . . . .Seeing the movement and recognizing the man who he so much feared and hated, the Tory wheeled his horse and stated back at quite a rapid gait, pursued at full speed by Colonel Campbell and one of the gentlemen of the company, whose name wa Thompson. . . . .At this moment Mr. Thompson roade up. They took their prisoner out on the bank and held what may be termed a drum-head court. The Tory, who, bad as he was, had the virtue to being a brave, candid man, at once acknowledged the truth of the charge preferred against him and boldly declared his defiance and determination to take horses wherever he could find the. But he was mistaken in his man, for in less than ten minutes he was dangling from teh limb of a large sycamore that stood upon the bank of the river, the stump of which was to be seen a few years ago, and may be there yet for aught the writer knows.

On the other hand, some of my Thorne Society of Friends ancestors were among the signers of the Flushing Remonstrance, protesting the manner in which the Dutch were treating Quakers. While protesting for their own freedom of religion, tax rolls show that the Thornes were among the early slave owners in America.http://thorn.pair.com/thorn/thornlineage/jthorne.htm

Knowing what nearly all of the Scots, Irish, and English in New Scotland did a couple hundred years back, I can be pretty positive that they were Privateers.

I don't know if I should be trying to celebrate, or hide the fact that I come from Pirates.

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Caw

"I am a Canadian by birth, but I am a Highlander by blood and feel under an obligation to do all I can for the sake of the Highlanders and their literature.... I have never yet spoken a word of English to any of my children. They can speak as much English as they like to others, but when they talk to me they have to talk in Gaelic."

My mothers side was big in being merchants and managed to pile up quite some wealth. They were all in the shipping business with a few exceptions who were in the navy. We managed to trace them down to the C14, in which they were quite big in the Hanse, a trade organisation of the late medieval period, famously hated by Elizabeth I. We were able to trace them as far as that because they came from big maritime German cities which had well documented church records.

My fathers family descend from a **TOS VIOLATION** quite a while back, and that is when we loose it. Their name is medieval German for "curly haired". The other side of the family came back to be a knights family in Preussia with a large estate which is now Poland. They were reknowned for their Trakehners, a large horsebreed at that time, very valued. They were famous for breeding Cleveland Bays into them and having connections to all over the horse breeding world, especially to Ireland and England. That's where my Irish GGG Grandma comes from... she was a horse-breeders daughter, not really irish although born there, she was basically english.

This is an article that we have concerning Martin Burke, a cousin to my grandfather. Martin was part of the group that was responsible for blowing up Lord Nelson and was arrested for that and executed Jan. 20, 1923. He was 17 years old when he was executed.

On my fathers side, the family tree always points back to Scotland. Originally, my family landed in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. The males always seemed to stick to marrying female Scottish immigrants until my father met my mother. I have a picture of my great grandmother as a girl in the early 1900's when she first arrived in Canada from Scotland.

My mothers side is Irish and Welsh. I didn't know about this until my grandmother was dying in the hospital when she proceeded to give the whole family history. I had thought that she was born in Canada but she was actually born in Wales. She came over from Wales with her parents (obviously my great-grandparents). My great grandmother was Welsh (never met her) and my great grandfather (we called 'grampa one-leg'(**see below)) was from Ireland. My grandfather was from Wales as well.

**We were always told as children that 'grampa on-leg' had lost his leg during the war. My grandmother (another death bed story) let it slip that he was actually running for a streetcar (stumbling would probably be a better term) in Montreal and fell underneath. His leg was run over.

In the same family, my ancestors fought on both sides during the English Civil War. I had a many times great uncle who was beheaded as witnessed by Oliver Cromwell himself. He was captured one day, tried and executed the next. Didn't have much time for an appeal. He and all his brothers were Royalist obviously but his nephew's, my many greats grandfather were puritans and fought on the parliamentary side. When Charles II regained the throne, they immigrated to the America, to Plymouth, MA and Middleton, CT. The one who settled in Plymouth married a Mayflower descendent although that isn't my line she would have been a great many times aunt. Another branch does go back to a Mayflower passenger, one George Soule. My Scottish ancestors also came over about the same time. They were Quakers who probably had conflicts with the Presbyterians in Morayshire and immigrated to Christiana which was a Swedish colony about that time which became West Jersey, and then with East Jersey, New Jersey. They owned a 2000 acre plantation which was mostly swampland. about 1694 they sold it and moved to Swedesborough and later to just across the Delaware from Philadelphia where I still have seventh cousins living who I correspond with occasionally.

My wife has some really interesting family going back to the Revolutionary War. One several times great grandfather actually was on three sides during the war. He came to America as a German mercenary to fight for the British. His regiment was sent to Pensacola to protect the frontier against the Spanish. He was captured by the Spanish and taken to New Orleans where he renounce any allegiance to the English and joined the Spanish army. He accompanied Viceroy Galvez, the Governor of Louisiana on an ill-fated expedition against the British at Detroit. (That's right, Detroit). They got as far as near the present location of Niles, MI before they ran out of supplies and turned back. My wife's ancestor then appears at Kaskaskia on the Mississippi in what is now IL. At this point he joins Col. George Rogers Clark's Virginia frontier regiment. He stayed with them for the remainder of the war. so he was on the side of the British, the Spanish, and the Americans. Her third great grandfather on her grandmothers side was Scots/Irish and Welsh. He fought in the Revolution and the War of 1812. He died in 1873 at the age of 109 from injuries sustained from trying to break a colt so he could ride it to town to buy whiskey. (Tough old bird.)